Trial postponed for suspected I-4 rapist

Winel Castro-Molina is accused of raping a stranded motorist

SANFORD – The kidnapping and rape trial of a 34-year-old man, accused of stopping on Interstate 4 to help a stranded driver — a woman who was drunk and blacked out — was continued.

Jury selection was slated to begin today in the case against Winel Castro-Molina, but it was continued to Oct. 20 because an attorney was hospitalized, a court spokeswoman said.

Castro-Molina was arrested Oct. 29, the morning an Altamonte Springs police officer discovered him and the very confused woman in the back seat of her car about 3 a.m.

Her clothes were in disarray and the woman did not know where she was, who Castro-Molina was or what she was doing, according to an arrest report.

She had been to a company party then a bar, she told police, and had had about 10 beers.

Castro-Molina said he found her slumped over the wheel of her car on I-4 near State Road 436. He offered to drive her home in Oviedo but, instead, drove her to the parking lot of a storage facility in Altamonte Springs.

He told police he committed a sex act without her consent, according to his arrest report.

She told police she couldn't remember what happened.

A state lab analyst testified in August that the woman likely had a blood alcohol level of 0.17 to 0.22 while the two were in the back seat. That's more than twice the legal limit for driving.